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PLATE I. 

The Owasco Lake pot, restored by B. H. Golil, 1915. The frag- 
ments of this vessel were found intermixed with hundreds of other 
sherds, and were sorted out by Mr. Gohl, who after painstaking effort 
restored the pot. It was afterwards further restored in the State 
Museum where the open spaces were filled in to give the specimen 
strength. Its height is 15% inches. 



Vol. IV No. 2 

RESEARCHES AND TRANSACTIONS 

OF 

THE NEW YORK STATE ARCHEOLOGICAL 
ASSOCIATION 

LEWIS H. MORGAN CHAPTER 

ROCHESTER, M. Y. 

THE ALGONKIAN 

OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 

I 

GENERAL ARCHELOGICAL CRITERIA OF 
EARLY ALGONKIAN CULTURE 

BY i_ 

ALANSONaSKINNER . 
Ethnologist, Public Museum of Milwaukee 

II 

OUTLINE OF THE ALGONKIAN 
OCCUPATION IN NEW YORK 

BY 

ARTHUR C. PARKER 
Archcologist, Slate Museum of New York 







I'UBLISHED BY LEWIS H. MORGAN CHAPTER 

ROCHESTER, N. Y. 

19^3 



TIMES PRESSF.S 
C'anandaigi A, New ^'ork 






GENERAL ARCHEOLOGICAL CRITERIA OF 
EARLY ALGONKIAN CULTURE 

By ALANSOX SKINNER 
Fthnologist, Public Museum of Milwaukee 

Part I. 
The Algonkian Occupation of New York and Wisconsin. 

From H theoretical standpoint the peoples forming the 
Algonkian linguistic stock must have had a common origin, or, 
in other words, if it were possible to roll back the years, we 
would find, at the date of their first advent into eastern North 
America, a single great primitive Algonkian tribe, speaking one 
tongue, and of homogeneous culture. As it is. we have had, 
during historic contact, a multitude of distinct tribes, conversing 
in dialects of the mother Algonkian often .so widely separated 
linguistically that only a morphological study of the languages 
reveals their relationship. Moreover, these tribes range in 
culture from the archaic woodlaiul type found in nortlieastern 
New p]nglaiul and the sub-Arctic, to the cavalry culture of the 
southern plains. We are therefore obliged to turn to the 
archeological remains of these peoples to learn iheir ancient 
common traits, and the extent of their former territories and 
early migrations. 

It is r)f course necessary to first establish a type area for 
comparison, one in which we know that there was no other 
occupation during historic times than that of the Algonkian, 
and this is readily itnind along the Atlantic coast, where Indians 
of this stock were among the earliest of American ])eoples to 
come in contact with Europeans. Here we find large areas now 
composed of states and groups of states, known to have had no 
other native inhabitants, and here we have only to trace the 
culture of these Indians back from their known historic to pre- 
historic sites. This task has been performed in New England and 
in the Middle Atlantic states, and more recently by comparison 
with these districts the Algonkian culture complex has been 



30 



THE ADGOXKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 




Plate II. 

Algonkian jar, late period, showing modified Iroquois "influence, 
East Windsor, Conn. American Museum of Natural History. 



THE ALGOXKIAN OCOUPATIOX OF NEW YORK 31 

locatt'd fiirtlu'i- west in Wisconsin, and thus a set of criteria 

for the determination of this eidture. wherever found, has l)een 

I 

established. 

Tliesc criteria exist in the various tyjics of artifacts 
discoverc(i in he cunstant in occurrence on Aljronkian sites. The 
sites iheinsi'lvcs. theii- situation, presence or absence of niounds, 
rocksheltei's. slu'llheai)s. ;iud llie like, are so variable according: 
to h)cality that they are less reliable for use. 

A soniewliat coinplicatin<r feature, which we shall not treat 
in detail in the coui-se of this ])a])er. is that there can be no 
([uestion but that in the east, at least, the Algonkians came into 
the countrv by successive waves, and it is possible, to a great 
extent, to isolate the archaic and later cultures. 

Throughout the whole of New England, except for north- 
eastern Vermont, which was largely occupied by Iroquoian 
])eople. the following types have been demonstrated to be 
Algonkian. Many of these forms also extend across the St. 
Lawrence into the tidewater portions of Canada, where, how- 
ever, we find a niuidi more limited range of articles. 

POTTERY. 

\'essels of clay form one of our most important criteria in 
all iiarts of Algonkian territory. Willoughby* remarks, in his 
excellent article on the "Pottery of the New England Indians", 
that: "The first New England potters were probably Algon- 
(juian. Their earlier ware is characterized by a more or less 
c(uioi(lal base, the lower part of which is often massive (Figs. 
3-6), and a large portion of the surface of this pottery is com- 
monly decorated \vith indentations made with natural objects of 
simple designs or with notched sticks or other implements. In- 
cised decorations, eitiu'r ahuie oi" in connection with indented 
designs, occur less frequently. There is often an outer zone near 
the rim bearing a si>ecial design, and the inner side of the rim is 
often decorated." 

In another place in the same article (p. 09) Willoughby 
refers to one m<>ie characteristic of Algonkian pottery, this 



•^Putnam Anniversary Volume, N. Y., Ii;l09. p. 81. 



32 THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 

time in comparison with that of the Iroquois. "These (the 
Iroquois jars) are distinguished not only by their form and 
decoration, but by the texture of the clay, which, in nearly all 
this pottery, is of good quality, and free from the coarse 
tempering material often used by the eastern Algonkians. ' ' 

What has been said by Willoughby of the pottery from 
Maine to Connecticut applies with equal force t(» that of the 




Plate III. 

Pottery jar< from Lake Michigan shore sites near Sheboylgian, Wis. 
Kuehne collection. 

adjoining Canadian maritime provinces, and to that from the 
Algonkian sites in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
Delaware.* 

(a). "The Lenape Indians of Staten Island," Anthropo- 
logical Papers of the American Museum of Natural 
History, N. Y., 1909. Vol. Ill, p. 54. 

(b). "Archeology of Manhattan Island" idem p. 120. 

(c). "Archeology of the New York Coastal Algonkin," 
idem p. 222. 

(d). "Archeological Survey of the State of New Jersey," 
Bulletin IX, State Geological Survey of New Jersey, 
Trenton, 1913, p. 25. 



*See Skinner, Alanson. 



THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 33 

(e). "The Pre-Iroquoian Al^^onkian Indians of Central 
and Western New York," Indian Notes and Mono- 
graphs of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye 
Foundalion. Vol. II. No. 1. p. 14. 

(f ). "An Ancient Algonkian Fishing Village at Cayuga, 
New York," idem p. 43. 

(g). Christopher Wren, "A Study of North Appalachian 
Indian Pottery," Plymouth. Pa.. 1914. 

It is also applicable to a large part of the pottery of northern 
and eastern Wisconsin. In 1919 the writer, in company with 
Dr. S. A. Barrett of the l*uhlic Museum of the City of Milwaukee, 




Plate IV. 

Algonkian pottery .iar, archaic type, seined from the Seneca river 
near Rowland's Island. Cayuga Co., N. Y. Miisenm of tihe American 
Indian, Heye Foundation. (Collected by Alanson Skinner.) 

opened twenty-one mounds and many pits in Shawano county. 
Wis., finding, among other things, four typical pointed liase 
Algonkian jars bearing cord-wrapped stick impressed decoration. 
Others have been recorded from Brown, Door, and Sheboygan 
counties, where they seem to be the principal form, to say the 
least. The exact limits of this ware in Wisconsin are yet to be 
determined, but it seems to trend north and west, on through 



34 THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 

the Rainy Lake region of Minnesota and Ontario to the shores 
of Lake "Winnipeg in Manitoba. 

What type of pottery was made by the Siouan Winnebago 
of Wisconsin is not definitely known. It is quite possible that 
they aped Algonkian material culture in all its branches quite 
as slavishly as they have always done in historic times. 

For the region between Wisconsin and Pennsylvania we 
lack data, but believe Algonkian pottery is certain to be recorded 
from the Canadian Niagara frontier. It is likely to be found 
from northern Michigan and western Ontario. It is known now 
in northern Indiana, Illinois, and in Ohio. 

Shetrone, in a recent paper on "The Culture Problem in 
Ohio Archeology"* presents good evidence of the existence of 
Algonkian sites in that state, but merely remarks that the 
development of pottery as observed on these is weak, a state- 
ment which is not specific enough to be of value. Investigation 
of sites and examination of specimens is needed for this region. 

From the Potomac southward along the Atlantic seaboard 
much pottery of the Algonkian type has been recorded. Holmes 
in his monograph on "Aboriginal Pottery of the eastern United 
States"* gives the southern limits of the area as a somewhat 
indefinite line extending from below Cape Hatteras, on the 
Atlantic coast, through southwestern Virginia, eastern Kentucky. 
middle Ohio, northern Indiana, northern Illinois, and middle 
Iowa to Nebraska and beyond. This statement the writer con- 
cedes to be closely ai^proximate to his own views. ' 

STONE WORK. 
In stone work of all kinds the Algonkian was pre-eminent. 
In the New England and Middle Atlantic states, and in Wiscon- 
sin, they were Algonkian hands that fashioned the various 
forms of stemmed and notched points and blades of chii)ped 
stone, ranging greatly in .size and often of bizarre shapes. Unlike 
tlie llnron-Iroquois. the members of this stock were not wedded to 
the use of the tiny triangular arrow point alone. 



*American Anthropologist. X. S.. 22. No. 2, page 165. 
♦Twentieth Annual Report of the Bureau of American 
Ethnology, p. 145. 



THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 35 

Of Algonkian provenience, in all the districts named above, 
are, the bird and bar amulets, bannerstones, tubes, monitor 
pipes, and the handsome slate gorgets, particularly those having 
two or more holes. In Wisconsin, Minnesota, and southern 
Ontario, these statements with regard to the types of chipped 
"flints" and "polished slates" also hold true, and the same may 
be said of certain pecked stone implements, save that there are 
greater local variations. About the Gulf of St Lawrence the 
stone plummet, gouge, grooved adze, and long flat celt are 
characteristic. In southern New England the grooved axe and 
adze, the long cylindrical pestle, senii-lunar knife, monitor 
pipes, bird stones and banner stones appear. Many of these are 
found continuously across the intervening country all the way to 
Minnesota, but it may be taken as a general truth that the gouge 
and adze are more abundant throughout the northern part of this 
range, and the ceremonial slates occur with greater frequency 
in the southern portion. The grooved axe is always accom- 
panied, and sometimes supplanted by, the celt, and in Wisconsin 
the far famed fluted axes appear. In Michigan another form of 
grooved axe, with projections at either side bounding the 
grooves, is to be noted. The plummet and semi-lunar knife 
are rare outside of New England, where they may be one of the 
marks of an early wave of Algonkian migration. Plummets, 
however, are found in some numbers in Wisconsin. 

The Algonkian made good platform or monitor pipes, and 
some of the tubular variety, in the east. In the north the Micmac 
type was his, while in the west he bartered for Siouan pipes of 
catliuite or copied them in the same or inferior material. He 
rarely produced a pipe as good as those of his Siouan, Iroquoian, 
or Muskhogean neighbors, nor did those of his handicraft rival 
the finds in the Ohio mounds. The coarse Algonkian pipes of clay 
at best never approached those of the Iroquoian peoples, includ- 
ing the Cherokee, 

BONE AND ANTLER WORK. 

In bone and antler the Algonkian was little adept. His 
work was always crude, and even in the east, under Iroquois 
tutelage, he never learned the cunning of his conquerors in 



36 



THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 



fashioning implements and ornaments. Almost all Algonkian 
bone work is utilitarian. Awls, punches, a few arrowheads of 
limited types, hide scrapers of the draw shave form, turtle shell 
cups, occasional tubular beads, and rarely, a fishhook or harpoon, 
cover the usual list throughout the territory in question. 

SHELL. 

While the eastern coastal Algonkians have the credit of 
being the aboriginal wampum and shell bead makers of the 




Plate V. 

Algonkian jar, archaic type, Port Washington, Long Island, N. Y. 
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. (Collected by 
M. R. Harrington.) 

country, par excellence, the finished product is excessively rare 
on their sites, and even debris of their work is not often abund- 
ant. A few coast sites yield conch columellae, rejects of white 
wampum manufacture, and square fragments of the blue lip of 
the hard clam, blanks for black wampum making, in abundance. 
Judging by archeological evidence alone, their shell work was 
even less developed than their craft in bone and antler. They 
had some cups, beads, and possibly even gorgets, of shell, but 



THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 37 

tliese were evidently rare, and were better known in the western 
part of their range than in the tidewater region. 

COPPER. 

Possessing the great copper mine^ near and on the southern 
shore of Lake Superior, the Algonkians of the middle west Avere 
naturally skilled miners and metal workers. The copper was 
heated and hammered, never smelted. A myriad forms of 
utensils and some ornauuMits were made, some of which pene- 
trated even to distant New England by way of trade, and almost 
all Algonkians seem to have had a few. It is quite possible that 
the copi)er mines formed such another mecca to the Algonkians 
as the Catlinite quarries did to the Sioux. 

No Algic metal work was ever quite so good as that of the 
Ohio mounds, nor the repousse plaques and plated ornaments 
of the stone graves in the Gulf region, but it was often veiy 
creditabl}^ done. The Irociuois had none of this copper, except 
for a few stray pieces which found their way into the hands of 
the Huron and Neutral. 

MOUNDS. 

In certain portions of their range, at least, the Algonkians 
seem to have built mounds. These were, in northern Wisconsin, 
simple linear or semi-spherical forms, sometimes combined to 
make the so-called "cat-fish" type, a linear ending in a round or 
flattened head. These mounds contain flexed, bundle, or 
cremated burials, and sometimes examples of the typical pointed 
bottom jars appear as accompaniments. 

The artifacts from some New York mounds are notably 
similar to those found on Algonkian sites. For example, the 
famous mound on Long Sault Island, in the St. Lawrence, the 
contents of which are now to be found in the Museum of the 
American Indian, Heye Foundation, and the American Museum 
of Natural History, both of New York city, are, in part: Stone 
gouges, native copper beads, -slate tubes, huge flint and quartzite 
blades, and the major part of a pottery jar of late Algonkian 
type, (probably having an oval rather than a pointed base, but 
with typical decoration, etc., of a later Algonkian period). 



38 THE AliGONKIAiN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 

CRITERIA OF ALGONKIAN CULTURE. 
To recapitulate briefly the criteria of Algonkian culture 
are these : 

I. The coarsely made clay vessel with pointed base, 
commonly with impressed designs; decoration, how- 
ever, being a variable feature. 
11. Weak development of clay pipes; effigy forms 
virtually unknown, and tubular forms, either straight 
or bent, i)redominating. 
HI. Abundance oi stone work, of excellent quality, 
including : 

1. Bannerstones of many types. 

2. Two holed gorgets. 

3. Bird and bar amulets. 

-1. Monitor or platform pipes. 
5. Grooved axes and adzes, 
b. Gouges. 

7. Long cylindrical pestles. 

8. Stemmed and notched arrowpoints and blades of 
many types. Drills and scrapers of many designs. 
To these more general types may be added the 
following local developments : 

y. JSteatite vessels, oval, with handles at the ends. 

iS'ew England, Middle Atlantic, and Chesapeake 

Potomac regions. 
10. iSeiui-lunar knives, occuring in New England, 
il. 1' luted grooved axes and celts in Wisconsin; 

groo\ed axes with projections at the groove from 

Michigan. 

1 \ . The extensive use of native copper for utensils, and 
to a less extent for simple ornaments, such as beads 
and gorgets. 
\'. Weak development of bone and antler work. 
\'l. Poor development of work in shell. 
\ll. Mounds in New York and Wisconsin. In New Eng- 
land and New York some enclosures and embank- 



THE AliGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 39 

ments are known. These are probably a late develo])- 
ment under Iroquois influence. 
VIII. Extensive use of rockshelters where available. 
IX. General occurrence of the single flexed burial, com- 
monly without accompaniments, in New York, 
New England, and New Jersey at least. Bundle 
burials not uncommon. Ossuaries of the Huron- 
Iroquois type unknown. In the east the use of real 
cemeteries is less common than the custom of burying 
the dead in fireplaces and refuse pits throughout the 
village site. 

No study has as yet been made to ascertain the degree to 
which these features, known to be typically Algonkian, overlap 
with, or are common to, other cultures outside the area in 
question. It is quite probable that several types of the articles 
noted above are general in their distribution, although an 
attempt has been made to omit such common types as celts, 
pitted hammerstones, and stone netsinkers, as are not significant 
because of their wide distribution. 

It is desirable in noting the types of specimens to record the 
circumstances of their discovery — whether they were or were not 
associated with alien culture complexes. For instance, un- 
doubted articles of Algonkian type and make are sometimes 
found on the later Iroquois sites colonized in historic times by 
captives. 

One other subj*»ct worthy of consideration is the extent to 
which the Algonkian culture complex has been affected by out- 
side ideas. It does not seem likely that the Siouan tribes of 
the middle west have exerted much influence, for there are few 
if any indications of archeological novelties in Wisconsin and 
Minnesota, where such intrusions might be expected. On the 
other hand, so far as can be seen, the Siouan tribes of the forests 
of the central west always were and still are dominated by 
Algonkian material culture. 

In the east the case is different, the Iroquois imposing much 
of their culture on rlie neighboring Algic peoples. 

During the period just prior to colonization in tidewater 



40 THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 

New York, the Algonkian tribes of that region began to come 
under the rule of the Iroquois, and as a result, their 
material culture underwent considerable modification. This 
change became more and more pronounced as time advanced, and 
the eastern Iroquois, especially the warlike Mohawk, obtained 
firearms and extended their conquests. 

As this cultural metamorphosis has been dealt with more 
fully elsewhere* it is not necessary to go into any great detail 
here. Suffice it to say that the Algonkian tribes affected gave 
over the manufacture of their archaic pottery, especially the 
pointed-bottom vessels, for Iroquois forms. They abandoned 
much of their beautiful work in stone, and revived and enlarged 
their handicraft in bone and antler. Changes in the subjective 
life of these Algonkians. and in perishable material ob.jects. were 
doubtless also made, but few traces have survived. 

Tile extent of territory over which these innovations were 
wi-ono-ht is not yet fully known. All the tribes dwelling on the 
Hudson were decidedly affected, the Mahikan proper, and the 
Muncey, undergoing radical changes. The Manhattan, Wick- 
waesgeeck, and SiAvanoy territories Northern Staten Island 
(Hackensack), "Western Long Island (Canarsie, Rockaway, etc.), 
were strongly influenced. 

Southern Staten Island and eastern Long Island remained 
very little modified, as did the main body of the IJnarai Delaware 
at Ti-enton, N. J. In all these cases, however, occasional examples 
of Iroquois ware, etc., are found, but these are rarities, and the 
luire Algonkian culture of these regions was not altered. 

How far Iroquois culture went to the east, in New Enorland, 
it is not possible to say. Traces may be seen in pottery in the 
Wampanong collection from Warren, Rhode Island, in the 
^Tuseum of the American Indian. Ileye Foundation, but these look 
more like western Iroquois ideas, as are those shown in the pot- 
tery jars from Deerfield, Mass., preserved in that village. An 
interesting contemporary statement, made by Giles in his Memoirs 
concerning the Penobscot in 1680, throws light on this subject. 



^See Footnote 2, E. 



THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 41 

"They often had terrible apprehensions of the incursions of those 
Indians (Mohawk). They are called also Maqiias, a most 
ambitious, haughty, and blood-thirsty people, from whom the 
other Indians take their measures and manners, and their modes 
and changes of dress, etc." 

To the westAvard, nothing has been recorded to show whether 
the western Iroquois group imposed their culture on their Algon- 
kian neighbors, though this may have been the case. In central 
New York at least, I he pure Algonkian remains, all apparently of 
prehistoric times, indicate the expulsion of these people by the 
incoming Iroquois hordes was too abrupt for cultural changes 
to gain a foothold. 

Part II. 

The Cultural Position of the Archeological Remains of Wisconsin. 

The problems encountered by the student of Wisconsin 
Archeology are primarily three in number. First, by whom were 
the mounds and earthworks built? Second, to what peoples and 
cutlures are the artifacts found upon the camp, village, and 
cemetery sites within the borders of the state attributable? And 
third, what relationship, if any, do these bear to the mounds and 
their makers? Fourth, whence came the Indian tribes found 
inhabiting Wisconsin by the first white explorers. 

Of these questions the first and third are at present in 
process of investigation. The Wisconsin Archeological Society 
through years of persevering effort has assembled data and clues 
for the service of trained scientists, and the Public Museum of 
the City of Milwaukee, under the able leadership of its director. 
Dr. S. A. Barrett, has recentlj^ inaugurated a series of intensive 
studies of typical mound groups, the results of which bid fair to 
open an entirely new field of knowledge concerning the author- 
ship and purpose of this class of antiquities, and, moreover, 
already show a tendency to answer the third of our series of 
questions, namely, that referring to the relationship of the 
makers of the types of artifacts with the builders of the mounds. 
This leaves the second and fourth queries unanswered, and it is 
the purpose of this brief essay to attempt first, to show the 



42 THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 

relationship of a large portion of the nonperishable remains 
emanating from the state with a definitely established culture 
known to students by researches made in other localities, and 
second, to point out a possible source of origin for the historic 
tribes of Wisconsin. 

In considering the artifacts from within Wisconsin bound- 
aries, it must be remembered that in historic times there have 
been recorded as native to the region various Indian tribes of 
three difit'erent linguistic stocks, the Algonkian, Siouan, and 
Iroquoian. Now, \\ hile the names here given refer a priori 
to the linguistic at^liations of the three peoples, nevertheless it 
has been proven, in the cases of the first and last groups at least, 
that the tribes composing the parent body were somewhat 
homogeneous as to material culture, enough so that their archeo- 
logical remains may be conveniently placed under the same title 
that binds them together from the point of language. With the 
Siouan the case is yet unsettled, for, with the exception of the 
exploration of certain Mandan sites in North Dakota, no archeo- 
logical work worthy of the name has been done which can furnish 
us with criteria for the determination of the constant features of 
a definite culture complex. Inasmuch as we lack the necessary 
data., therefore, the problem of the Siouan origin of certain 
remains will be left for later consideration. 

With the Iroquoian culture the matter is different, for here 
we have an abundance of material to go by. In Wisconsin 
Iroquois occupation came in two waves, neither of which left 
any ])rofound mark on the general features of the area. The 
first was the influx of fugitive Tobacco Nation Huron, the later 
Wyandot, who sought asylum in the northern and eastern part 
of the state towards the close of the Huron-Iroquois wars. They 
did not long remain, but it is known that they had fortified towns 
on Green Bay, and from these may be expected the same typical 
pipes and pottery, bone implements, and triangular arrowpoints 
that mark their sites in the Ontario peninsula. Indeed the West 
collection of pipes in the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 
has several examples of true Iroquois pottery pipes which may 
be attributable to the Huron sojourn, and there are both pipes 
and jxitsliords in the collection of Mr. J. P. Schumacher, from 



THE ALGOXKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 43 

the counties bordering Greeu Bay, which can be the handicraft 
of no other people. The last visitation of an Irociuoian peojjle to 
Wisconsin was occasioned by the transfer of the larger part of 
the Oneida tribe to Green Bay, in the early part of the last 
century. Then arid thenceforward this progressive group was 
already so far advanced along the road of white civilization that 
it left no archeological impress on the region. 

There remains the Algonkian complex for our disposal. In 
historic times the greater part of the northern and eastern part 
of the state has been populated by tribes of this stock. True, 
the Siouan Winnebago have always dwelt among them, but, so 
far as their ethnology is concerned, their arts and manufactures 
are so similar to those of their Algonkian neighbors that they 
cannot be distinguished, and this may eventually be proven to 
be the case in prehistohic times. Certainly we find, so far as our 
knowledge extends, few types of artifacts peculiar to known 
Winnebago sites and not to those of their Algic neighbor^, 
except certain still hardly known forms of fictile ware. 

The artifacts which are features of the region occupied by 
the Algonkian tribes of northeru and eastern Wisconsin may be 
briefly listed as follows : 

I. Pecked and Polished Stone. 

1. The grooved axe, in numerous forms, including 
the famed fluted type found only in Wisconsin. 

2. The stone gouge. 

3. The grooved adze. Similar to the common New 
England form. 

4. The groveless adze with triangular cross section. 

5. The grooved pebble net-sinker, generally grooved 
across the long axes. 

6. Banner stone ceremonials, in some variety. 

7. Stone cones. 

8. Bird amulets. 

9. Bar amulets. 

10. Gorgets, two or multiple holed. 

11. Platform, Micmac, pebble, and Siouan pipes. 



44 THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 

II. Pottery. 

1. Coarsely made jars with stamped or pressed 
decoration predominating, and conical bases. 

2. Crude clay pipes. 

III. Copper. 

1. A large number of forms, celts, awls, arrows, 
spears, fishhooks, principally utilitarian, but 
beads, ornaments, . and butterfly ceremonials 
(bannerstones) are known. The repousse and 
overlay forms of the Ohio mounds and the gulf 
region do not occur. 

IV. Chipped Stone. 

1. A multitude of stemmed, notched, leafshape, 
triangular, serrated, and even unusual forms, 
with all varieties of drills and scrapers, covering 
a wide range of material. In the cases of the 
knives and blades, these are often of large size, 
but some types of arrowpoints are diminutive. 

V. Shell. 

1. A limited number of cups, beads, gorgets, and 
ornaments, also whole shells of a large species of 
conch from the Gulf Avaters, have been recorded, 
but the development of work in shell was weak. 

Part III. 

The Origin of the Algonkian Indians of Wisconsin. 

In the foregoing pages we have dealt with the archeological 
criteria and problems of tAvo great archeological cultural areas, 
Central and Western New York and Southern Ontario, and 
Wisconsin. A careful study of the evidence regarding the latter 
at once suggests two important points. First, that all the remains 
of northern and eastern Wisconsin are relatively recent in origin. 
Second, the artifacts that occur on the sites under discussion are 
remarkable for their similarity to those found on the Algonkian 
sites in the region to the east that has just been characterized. 



THE ALGOXKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 45 

In fact the resemblance in type after type is so striking as to 
amount to identity almost throughont the culture complex. 

Mounds, it is true, occur in Wisconsin far more abundantly 
than they do farther east, and of a different type. They do not 
impress one as being ancient, like those of the Ohio valley culture 
that cross southwestern New York as far east as the valley of the 
Genesee. On the contrary, ihej seem relatively new, and some 
of the simpler forms contain Algonkian artifacts, when they 
contain anything other than bones, that may be duplicated on 
the nearby historic sites. 

Thus, out of a large number of mounds explored by the 
writer and Dr. S. A. Barrett, Director of the Public Museum of 
the City of Milwaukee in 1919, only two yielded mortuary 
deposits of artifacts and in both instances these were typical 
pointed base Algonkian pottery jars, counterparts of those from 
Central New York and adjacent Ontario. Even the famous effigy 
mounds of Wisconsin seem to have been erected in late pre- 
historic times by the Siouan Winnebago. 

The writer wishes to reiterate that except for some special 
local developments of minor importance, such, for example, as 
the fluted stone axe and celt, there is almost nothing in the way 
of stone, bone, clay, or copper from either region which does not 
find its counterpart in the other. 

We now come to our fourth question in the preceding 
section, that having reference to the origin of the Algonkian 
tribes of Wisconsin. Turning to the ethnology of these tribes, 
if we except the Ojibway, whose culture being non- 
intensive has caused them to assimilate many traits from 
their neighbors, and who have probabh- dwelt in northern 
Wisconsin longer than any other "native" tribe, we find that 
the area Avas occupied at the arrival of the whites, by most of 
the tribes of the so-called "Central Algonkian" group. This 
includes the Menomini, Potawatomi, (both Forest and Prairie 
bands, almost two separate tribes,) Sauk, Kickapoo, Fox, and 
even Miami. The latter, and perhaps the Kickapoo, who early 
migrated south, we may discard as non-permanent residents. 
There also the Siouan Winnebago, who had not long since 



46 THE ALGONKIAN 0CM3UPATI0\ OF NEW YORK 

separated from their close relatives, the loway, Oto, and Missouri. 
All these peoples while speaking a radically different tongue, 
have, in historic times at least, possessed a material culture based 
almost wholly upon that of the Central Algonkians with whom 
they fraternized, and whose migrations they may have shared. 

For the xUgonkians we have the repeated testimony of the 
Jesuits that they had all but recently come into the present state 
of Wisconsin from points farther east, mainly in Michigan, to be 
specific. The statement is also made that some at least fled 
under Iroquois compulsion. The Menomini seem to have been 
the first to arrive, and have a tradition to this day that the 
first Menomini was transformed from a bear that came out of the 
ground at the mouth of the Menominee river. Yet they also 
have a tradition of a home farther east, on the sea, which is 
known only to a fcAv of the older men. They declare that the 
Winnebago, who have a similar origin myth making themselves 
authoctonous, were always near them, but that all the other 
Algonkians came from across Lake Michigan and settled near 
them, later on. 

The Sauk and the Potawatomi of the Prairie have a myth of 
origin far to the east. In manuscripts in my possession I have 
a definite claim on one part of the Potawatomi that 
they once resided near the salt water, and were 
neighbors to the Delaware. But - there is strong inlernal 
evidence of close relationship of all these people with the coastal 
Algonkian tribes of New York and New England. If one will 
take the rituals of the Prairie Potawatomi for example, and 
analyze the prayers and chants, one will find that no matter to 
whom they are ostensibly addressed they continually shift their 
allegiance over to those archaic Algonkian deities, the Sun, the 
Fire, the Water, (or the Sea), and the Gods of the Four Quarters 
of the Universe. These are the very Gods that Roger Williams 
enumerates as the principal deities of the Narragansetts in 1643. 

Language, traditions, ceremonies, all link the Central Algon- 
kians with the east, although influence, especially in modern 
times, from the western plains is not to be denied. Yet the 
ancient, the archaic, beliefs, are eastern. 

Whence came the Central Algonkian peoples of Wisconsin? 



THE ALGONKIAX OCCUPATION OF XEW YORK 47 

The writer will hazard the following hypothesis: As has been 
demonstrated, throughout southern Ontario and Central and 
"Western New York we have evidence of an extensive Algonkian 
occupation of long tluration, upon which, in comparatively recent 
times, is oa erlaid the alien culture of the Iroquois. 

When the Iroquois invaded the region of their historic 
seats they disturbed and drove out the resident Algonkian hordes, 
and it is the belief of the writer that these fugitives gradually 
withdrew westwai'd, pursued and harrassed by both the Five 
Nations and the Huron, (the latter are well known to have 
raided the Potawatomi, the so-called "Fire Nation," of Michigan, 
long after white occupation). They passed through Michigan, 
along the northern part of the southern peninsula, a part of 
them remaining there while the greater number went through 
the straits of Mackinac to Green Bay and the western shore of 
Lake Michigan. 

This leaves one further problem, the position of the Winne- 
bago and related Siouan tribes. Two hypotheses are possible. 
One, that they were indigenous to Wisconsin, the other that they 
accompanied the fleeing Algonkians from some point farther east. 

The first theory may be answered by the arguments brought 
forward in favor of the second. In Wisconsin we find that the 
archeological specimens so far definitely known to be attributable 
to the Winnebago closely resemble those of the Algonkians, 
varying, so far as can be determined, very weakly in the matter 
of potter}' forms, and, possibly, in types of flint arrowpoints. 
There seem to be no remains attributable to the Winnebago in 
the state that are older than those of Algonkian origin. 

The probability is then tfeat these Siouans accompanied the 
fugitive Algonkians from their eastern home, prehaps originally 
farther south along the Atlantic Coast, near their Catawba, 
Santee, and Tutelo relatives. As it is probable that the home 
of the New York Algonkians was once farther south along the 
coast, these Siouans may have east in their lot with them at some 
time in the dim past, migrated with them to New York, and 
thence westward. 

The lack of distinctive points of eastern Siouan culture 
makes this problem harder to solve than that of Algonkian or 



48 



THE AL,GOXKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 



Iroquois. Except, possibly, the Winnebago, all the Siouan 
tribes mentioned here were builders of earth lodges at one time. 
Earth lodge mounds have been found in northwestern New York 
about Perch Lake. Do they occur elsewhere along the probable 
line or lines of march, north or south of the lakes to Wisconsin? 



OUTLINE OFTHEALGONKIAN OCCUPANCY 
IN NEW YORK 

By ARTHUR C. PARKER 
, Archeologist, State Museum of New York 

Long before the coming of the Iroquois tribes to this specific 
region, — that is, the area now embraced by the state of 
New York, — the Algonkian tribes had held this ten-itory as their 
domain. An examination of any good map of the distribution 
of the various linguistic stocks of America will plainly show why 
this was so. The Algimkian tribes occui)ied a fan shaped area, 
with its handle in the Rocky mountains of Alberta and Montana, 
thence sweeping eastward from the headwaters of the Missouri, 
the North and South Saskatchewan, northward to Hudson Bay, 
and around it through the entire interior of Labrador, save 
where the Eskimo claimed the coastlands; southward from 
Manitoba through northern Minnesota, embracing Wisconsin, 
Michigan, eastern Iowa, Illinois, thence eastward through 
Kentucky, northern Tennessee to the Appalachian barrier east of 
which lived tribes of the Sioux and Iroquois. The Algonkian 
stock enfolded the three westmost great lakes, but Erie and 
Ontario and the St. Lawrence basin fell later into the control 
of the northern Iroquois, but New England was the unchallenged 
domain of the Algonkian people. All this immense tract, the 
finest land of North America, was the hoiiirbiiid of tlic Algonkian 
stock, but its very vastness invited intruding peoples. 

Never a closely knit people, the Algonkian tribes wei-e in 
contact with the Athapascar^. stock on the north-west, with the 
Sioux who pressed eastward from the valley of the Missouri 
and with the Muskhogean tribes of the south. In the north-east 
thej^ touched the Eskimo. 

With such an immense range it is not surprising that they 
present a diversified culture, for added to their contacts was 
the disposition to eopj^ the advantages and devices of their 
circumjacent friends and foes. This trait led bands of Algon- 
kian people to travel afar from the body of their mother stock 
and to become surrounded by other peoples. Thus, the 



50 THE ALGOXKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 

Cheyennes and Araphoes of Wyoming and Colorado were the 
neifrhbors of the Sioux, the Kiowa, the Caddo and the Shoshone. 
Likewise the coastal Algonkians were far removed from their 
western kinsfolk, due to the later intrusions of the Iroquois. 
But at one time the Algonkian people controlled all this region, 
being in all probability the first extensive branch of the American 
Indian family to occupy eastern North America, north of the 
Gulf states and south of the Labrador hinterlands, undess we 
except in the north from the forty-second parallel, a possible 
occupation at an early time by Avandering bands of the Eskimo, 
but then, the Eskimo were never a numerous race. 

With such an area over which to roam, there must have 
been much wandering before each specific group and sub-group 
found a suitable resting and abiding place. Fixation was 
hastened by the growth of the tribes and when each had become 
relatively large wandering ceased, for intrusions would be re- 
sented and estopped by force of arms. At this period the great 
tribes grew to maturity and attained definite characteristics. 
Difference in development and in contacts produced differences 
in the mother culture. As the tribes waxed strong in their 
relatively fixed abodes the younger element became restless and 
yielded to the irresistible impulse to search for adventure in 
foreign regions. Long journeys were undertaken and sister 
tribes were visited. Frequently some fair far spot would prove 
attractive, frequently misunderstandings would arise and as 
frequently a pure desire to play the game of war would lead 
the visitors to seize tracts of territory more or less remote from 
their own immediate homes. In this manner, within the Algon- 
kian area itself, various stages of culture are represented, as 
well as various phases of that culture. 

PERIODS OF OCCUPATION. 

In the State of Xcav York there seem to have been at least 
four stages of the Algonkian occupation. By this I mean four 
cultural stages. Each stage may represent an occupation by 
one or by numerous tribes of similar cultural standing. 

The first or archaic occupation yields crude implements, 
such as large and clumsy arrow points, but occasionally very 



THE AJLGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 51 

fine spear heads, many net sinkers, hammerstones, choppers of 
naturally flattened stone, some fragments of steatite vessels and 
rude tools of large cherty flakes. Pottery does not appear until 
the archaic stage has Avell advanced toward the secondary period, 
and pipes are apparently entirely absent. No bone imi)lements 
are found in the refuse pits and no charred corn. 

The secondary stage of the Algonkian occui)ation is repre- 
sented archeologically by a better grade of arrow points of the 
notched type, a larger variety of spears, javelin heads and knives, 
by roller ]iestles, by crude pottery the surface of which is 
stamped with corded impressions, b.y drills, scrapers, by grooved 
axes, celts and adzes, and by such ceremonials as the birdstone, 
bannerstone and gorget. Bone implements apj^ear. especially 
bone awls, harpoons, beads and tubes, nearly all poorly made. 
Charred corn and other vegetable traces are found in the refuse 
])its. Agriculture was a growing art. Occasionally copper 
objects are to be found. The second Algonkian occui)ation was 
that of tribes with more sedentary habits and with better social 
organization. They were culturally richer than their 
predecessors. A few graves of this period have been found. 
The skeletons are uniformly in the flexed position, though there 
are many accounts, all unsubstantiated by competent observers, 
of skeletons "sitting up". 

The third stage of the Algonkian culture is a complex one 
and in special localities presents many variations, showing not 
only evidence of contact and borrowing but also of individual 
development. Evidence of the second and third stages of Algic 
occupation may be found throughout the entire habital)le portion 
of the state. It was wide spread. 

This stages shows that the Algonkian tribes were growing 
in the culture scale and learning much. One learns this from 
the characteristic artifacts Avhich embrace a wide range of 
articles, including numerous finely chipped flints of the notched 
type, large triangular flint an-ow points, by steatite pottery, clay 
pottery, notched choppers, celts, adzes, gouges, grooved axes, 
hoes, some copper implements, as spear heads, small chisels or 
celts, and beads, numerous gorgets, bannerstones, birdstones. 



52 THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF XEW YORK 

boatstones, numerous roller or cylindrical pestles, quantities of 
hammerstones. pipes of stone and clay, including some well 
worked monitor pipes and generally poor clay pipes, save oc- 
casional ''elbow pipes" of a class that would be classed as 
mediocre with the Iroquois, numerous net sinkers, some rather 
inferior bone implements, some plummets and a few spools. 
This is liardly a complete list of implements, but will aft'ord an 
index. The third Algic occupation in its refuse pits yields a 
considerable amount of corn and other vegetable foods, as 
hickory nuts, beans and a rare squash stem or two. Burials 
seem to have been of several types. — aerial, ossuary and 
individual flexed. Burials vary in the type of implements 
interred with the skeleton. Most of the burials yield nothing, 
but in certain places where the "mound culture" had penetrated 
and taken hold, some very fine things have been found, and the 
entire site can hardly be distinguished from a mound site in such 
an area as Ohio, for example. 

It will be noted that the Algonkian people were strong in 
their work in stone, mediocre in clay, and poor in bone and 
shell. They were, however, workers in copper to some extent, 
in this differing from the Iroquois who would not use it. 

In the third stage the Algonkian people reached the highest 
.stage of their native development, and in that stage they learned 
most from other stocks. Likewise in that stage the higher 
branches of their own stock radiated the greatest social and 
cultural influence, to the extent of colonizing isolated parts of 
New York, apparently without much resistance from their less 
equipped neighbors. These people built towns and erected 
stockades, possibly copying them from their Iroquoian foes, they 
imitated the culture of the Mississippi basin, they had large 
tracts of agricultural land, but Avere inferior to the later 
Iroquois in this characteristic. They built small mounds, buried 
to some extent in ossuaries, and worked chert pits and ledges for 
their stone supply, as at Coxsackie. 

The fourth stage of the Algonkian occupation is that of the 
historic period. Sites of this period are to be found on Long 
Island, along the Hudson, and along some of the larger streams, 
as the Delaware. One large site has been investigated in the 



THE ALGOXKIAN OCCUPATIOX OF NEW YORK 53 

Neversink near Port Jervis. Such sites yield considerable in the 
way of shell articles, though there is little to prove that they 
themselves made this shell work. In this period in Xew York 
the native culture of the people faded out for the intrusions of 
the colonists and the pressure of the Iroquois left them little 
that was distinctively their own. Unlike the more vigorous 
Iroquois they did not hold to their native seats or to their own 
material culture, sa\e in the latter instance, when far removed 
to isolated spots, as with the Oklahoma Delaware. 

The best works for the areheologist on the Algonkian people 
have been written by Alanson Skinner, and the reader is invited 
to study his monographs in the publications of the Museum of 
the American Indian (Heye Foundation), the American Museum 
of Natural History and the Public Museum of Milwaukee. Mr. 
Skinner has had extensive experience not only with the living 
Algonkian tribes but also with the ashes of their ancestors from 
the shores of Long Island to the lake lands of Wisconsin. 

AN OUTLINE OF ALGONKIAN CULTURAL ARTIFACTS. 

Methods of Identification. In any endeavor to determine 
the cultural signitieance of any artifact there must be a certain 
and definite means of comparison. To fix the characteristics of 
a culture we must have before us the results of actual excava- 
tions and collections made in and on a site. In other words, 
we must reason from the known to the unknown. Once we know 
the characteristics of an Algonkian site we may look elsewhere 
and say with some degree of positiveness what is Algonkian. 
But to know in the beginning what is Algonkian we must find a 
site actually known to have been occupied by some Algonkian 
tribe and after examination we must find what the objects are, 
how they look, how they are decorated; and, what is equally 
valuable, we must determine what objects are associated. Not 
only must we study the ash pit and refuse heap, but the house 
site, the village site, the camp site and the fishing grounds. 

Once we know the characteristics of a historical site, which 
may have within it European artifacts, we may look for older 
sites in which traces of the white man are absent. Once the 
pre-colonial sites are known and the characteristics of their 



54 THE ALGOXKIAX OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 

objects determined, we may look for still older sites. Then, 
when the general characteristics of the Algonkian culture are 
known we may say with some degree of assurance that a specimen 
is or is not Algonkian. If it is not Algonkian, what is it ? Does 
it belong to the later Iroquois or does it belong to another 
culture altogether? 

One can easily understand through these suggested inquiries 
how extremely important it is to make a record of every 
discovery and to mark each specimen in such a way that the 
place where it was found may be known. The collector who 
simj :]y collects for the mass of relics he can jumble together is 
nothing more than a vandal, who to gratify his lust for acquisi- 
tion, destroys the only clues we have by which science may reveal 
the man of yesterday. 

An examination of the numerous Algonkian sites in 
New York, and indeed elsewhere, demonstrates that the Algon- 
kian culture was not uniform. This is not strange when we 
remember that the great Algonkian stock embraced many tribes 
and influenced this geographical area from comparatively remote 
times. It is natural to suppose that certain tribes varied in 
minor particulars from others and that in the process of time 
tribes may have changed some of their customs. There is an 
abundance of proof that this process of cultural change took 
place among tribes observed since the advent of the European. 
Changes took place, it is reasonable to suppose, in the eras before 
the white man came. 

While it is tru2 that our knowledge of the various occupa- 
tions is incomplete, enough sites have been examined by 
competent observers to afford some basis for comparison and 
identification. The description which follows is a brief attempt 
to outline the characteristic artifacts of the Algonkian culture. 

Chipped Implements. Nearly all the periods of the Algon- 
kian occupation, where there was any considerable population, 
are characterized by innumerable chipped implements of chert, 
quartz, hornstone and other flinty rocks. The material to some 
extent varies with the location, the local rocks predominating, 
but favorite materials are not lacking; thus, even on the sea- 



THE ALGOXKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 



55 




Plate VI. 

Certain types of New York arrow points. x% . From Algonkian sites. 
1, dark chert, Livingston Co.; 2, chert, Livingston Co.; 3, chert. 



56 THE ALGONKIAX OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 

shore where nearly all the chipped implements are of pebble 
quartz, jasper and chert points are to be found. 

Spear points occur in abundance and vary in size from three 
inches to ten inches, with occasional specimens below and even 
above these measurements. Not only do these implements vary 
in size but in degree of workmanship, some being crude and 
clumsy, others revealing the skilled hand and eye of an expert. 
With the possible exception of some knife blades and unfinished 
blank forms that if necessary covild have been used as spear 
points, all Algonkian spear points and javelin heads are notched 
or barbed.. 

Arrow points are numerous on all Algonkian village and 
camp sites and along trails of this occupation. Like the larger 
points considered as spears, Algonkian arrow heads are barbed, 
or at least have distinct necks and shoulders. No less than 
forty distinct forms of these arrow-heads are recognizable, and 
into these forms are types of variants that in some particulars 
resemble one form or another or several. The sorting of a large 
collection of points becomes a most perplexing problem and. for 
a time, it seems that one is pursuing an impossible task. While 
man}' arrow-points seem to be individual and without previous 
or similar pattern, a close examination and comparison will 
usually fit the specimens into one or more classes, to be determined 
by the shape of the neck, barbs, shoulders, point or bevel. 

Frequently in soi'ting a large collection of arrow-heads two 
or more may be found that are so similar in size. sha]ie and 
technique as to suggt.'st having l)eeu made by the same liands or 
guaged by the same pattern. It is quite possible that many 
points, especially if from the same site, were made by the same 
arrow-maker. 

The Algonkian tribes used triangular points, popularly 



Livingston Co.; 4, duli chert, Seneca river; 5. marble quartz. Long 
Island; 6. gray cher:, Seneca river; 7, slaty chert, Seneca river; 8, 
slaty chert. Jefferson Co.; 9, serrated rotary or bevelsd, Seneca river; 
10, dark chert. Seneca river; 11, orange, red and black jasper with 
\yhite bands. Seneca river; 12, gray chert. Seneca river; 13, gray chert 
Seneca river; 14, waxy chalcedony, Oneida lake; 1.5, light grav chert' 
bifurcated stem. Rush; 16, chert. Livingston Co. ; 17 Monroe Co 



THE ALGOXKIAN OCCUPATION OF XEW YORK 57 

termed "war points", but, as a general rale did not make them 
with the same degree of skill as the later Iroquois. In most 
cases, too, the Algonkian point is larger than tlu^ Iroquois. 
Certain Algonkian sites, as at Owasco Lake and Castleton-on-the- 
Iludson. yield triangular points almost to the exclusion of other 
types, but these sites seem to have belonged to the period of 
Iroquoian influence. 

Knives. Chipped stone knives are commonly found on 
Algonkian sites. Frequently knives are confused Avith spear- 
heads, and, indeed, manj^ knife-blades might have been employed 
as spear-points and vice versa. The distinguishing feature of a 
knife is its curved edge. Most knives are thinner than spear- 
heads and have an evener edge, that Avhen tried by the thumb 
feels sharp. A spear may have a rough or an irregular edge. 
Many knife blades have no notched shoulders, and many of them 
are small. Some are oval, some round, some Unciform and 
some petaloid. One type of the double pointed blade has one 
of the pointed tips slightly notched on either side, but on un- 
mixed sites these are very rare and seem to be the products of 
another cnltiirc. Algonkian knife-blades are generally made 
from better material than sjiear-heads and arrow-i)<)ints. The 
material is better chosen and free from defective sjiots. Some 
very fine speeimcuis of knife-blades are made from jaspei-. ehalce- 
dony. quartz and fine grades of chert. Many are of unusual 
length, from six inches to ten or more. 

Scrapers. Scrapers are commonly found on sites of the 
Algonkian occupation. Several forms occur, due in some 
measure to the different ways in which scrapers were used, as 
with or without handles. One common form of the scraper is 
that having the under side a smooth curved surface, and the 
other humped or "turtle backed". Scrajiers of this kind' 
may or may not have been employed in handles, but very few 
of them are notched at the handle end. A second form is 
chipped on both surfaces but the scraping edge is beveled one 
"vvay, to give a chisel-like surface. Many of this type are 
stemmed and notched. A third form is made from abruptly 
broken arrow or spear-heads. The fractured edge is simply 



58 THE ALaOXKIAX OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 

chipped back from one side to provide the chisel edge for 
scraping. Scrapers are also made from flakes and many were 
formed from larger blades, the sides of which were used for 
scraping and not the ends. Some knife-blades show that the 
upper or handle-end was used as a scraper. Of course not all 
scrapers were made of chipped flint or chert. Some were 
made of tough slates, granites and sandstones, and ground 
down in the form of small adzes. These come under the head 
of jiolished stone implements. 

Perforators or drills. Perforators are found on Algonkian 
sites but probably none has been found on Iroquoian sites that 
are original. Several types of perforators are found on sites 
of the Algonkian occupation. Among these may be mentioned 
the long slender shafts of flint or jasper that are of a diameter 
nearly uniform. These may or may not have shoulders and 
necks. The usual type may be fastened to a shaft so as to 
permit thereon a rotating spindle driven by a bow string or 
by the motion of a pump drill. Another type has a very rough, 
massive top, as if this were a handle to be used without a 
spindle. Not all so-called perforators were in reality drills; 
at least not all were constantly used as such, for both human 
and animal bones have been found pierced by them in such 
a manner as to indicate their use as arrow points. 

Disks. Disks of various sizes have been found along the 
Susquehanna. A considerable number come from the Chenango 
and C'hemung valleys but specimens from the tributaries of all 
these streams are to be found. As a rule these disks are 
chipped from flat layers of sedimentary rock, except slate, and 
in thickness are from one-fourth to one-half inches. Some have 
been found down the Susquehanna as far as below Wilkes-Barre. 
The.se disks are sometimes termed^ "pot covers" perhaps 
because they are round, are notched in many instances, and 
because the larger specimens are about the size of the top of a 
small pottery vessel. Those who use this term, however, forget 
that the greater number are much too small to be pot covers, 
unless all pots with three inch tops have "crumbled into dust 
upon exposure to the air". It seems far more probable that 
notched disks were simply a local form of the usual net-sinker. 



THE AbGONKIAX OCCUPATION OP NEW YORK 59 

STONE TOOLS. 

Hammer-stones. Nearly all Algonkian sites are charac- 
terized by an abundance of hammer-stones. Several types are 
to be found, ranging from a naturally formed pebble or small 
cobble to an artificially formed grooved head, symmetrically 
shaped and polished. The commoner types are ordinary 
cobbles that show evidence of impact; discoidal pebbles with 
pits in the center on either flattened side, (the ordinary i)itted 
hammer-stone) ; and chunks of chert and quartz that have 
been battered into spheroids by much use. There is nothing 
more distinctive in Algonkian hammer-stones except perhaps 
some ball-like hand hammers. 

Pestles. The ordinary Algonkian pestle is cylindrical in 
form, and long. The diameter varies from one and one-half 
inches to four inches. A few pestles are as short as six inches, 
but the average form is approximately fourteen. Exceptional 
pestles have been found with lengths above eighteen inches and 
ranging up to twenty-seven. Along the Hudson Kiver fi-om 
Catskill to Glens Falls, and along the Seneca River. ))estles have 
been found with tlie effigies of animal heads at the ui)per or 
handle ends. In most cases the head bends at a slight angle. 
Along the St'ueea Kiver some pestles seem to be phalic. 

Stone Mortars. Stone mortars are not to l)e regarded as 
common, though one should not consider them rare. In pro})or- 
tion to the number of stone pestles, however, mortars are exceed- 
ingly scarce. Most of them are made from small boulders 
holloAved out, apparently, by considerable expenditure of time 
and energy. The cavities vary from mere hollows to cups 
three to five inches deep. 

Metates. Most of the grinding or mealing stones found in 
Algonkian sites are flat pieces of shale or sandstone, of convenient 
size and thickness. One surface usually shows that it has been 
depressed and smoothed by the rubbing of a muller, and the 
reverse generally is pitted and scarred as if used as an anvil 
in the breaking of chert or other hard stones. It is quite likely 
that earthen pigments, burned stone and other hard mineral 
substances were reduced in mortars and metates, and that they 



60 THE ALGOXKIAN OCCUPATION' OF NEW YORK 

were not merely used in the preparation of vegetable meals and 
hominy, but for pulverizing in general. 

Mullers. For grinding substances on the mealing stone 
muUers were used. Mullers are fairly conTmon on sites of this 
culture and may be recognized by the smooth and slightly 
curved underside. The more finished types are discoid and 
well shaped. In many instances the edges seem to have been 
used for hammering, and thus, many of the finest specimens 
have a roughened circumference. Some mullers are polished 
on both sides and so nearly circular as to resemble quoits or 
game disks that might be rolled over the ice in contests of skill. 

Celts. Stone hatchet heads, frequently called celts, and 
commonly found on Algonkian sites. There is a great degree 
of difference between the roughest of these specimens and the 
best. Some -of the finest are highly polished and balanced with 
great nicety. The Algonkian people liked to bring out the 
grain of the ston-^' and to reveal by polishing the mottling 
and banding of the layers. Some of the best specimens are of 
granitic rock, many are of diabase and a few are of sandstone. 
There are very few specimens of polished flint or chert. Celts 
reveal all the processes of manufacturing from the first rough 
chipping to the pitting process and the final polishing. There 
are some localities where celts appear to be better made than in 
others. The Seneca river region is noted for its beautifully 
formed celts and there are more than 200 in the Alvin H. Dewey 
collection, from the Genesee region. 

In the ordinary symmetrical celt used by the Algonkian 
tribes there is little or nothing, save the site upon which it is 
found to distinguish it from specimens made and used by the 
Iroquoian peoples. In other words, the celt is common to nearly 
all forms of aboriginal culture and variations are only local, 
unless we except extreme forms. The size of Algonkian celts 
varies from a length of one inch to eleven or twelve. The 
average length is approximately five to six inches. 

Adzes. A celt with one side more flattened than the other 
may be regarded as an adz. This is easily determinable when 
iht' cutting blade is flattened on one side and beveled on the 
other. Some adzes have a slightly concaved under side and 



THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 



61 



closely approach gouge forms. Adzes in general are finished 
with more care than celts. An interesting form of adz is that 
having beveled sides, that is to say with a cross-section an 
approximate oblong with the upper corners ground off. Most 
beveled adzes are made with great care, the plain surfaces are 
smooth and the entire blade is well polished. It seems definitely 
established that beveled adzes are original with one phase of the 
Algonkian culture in New York. They are seldom found 
elsewhere. 




Plate VII. 

Shallow mouthed gouge 

Gouges. There are several types of gouges and as many 
variations of types as the individual makers could produce. All 
have curved cutting edges and are concaved on the under side. 
The backs may be round, flat or beveled. The types are those 
having, first, a short scoop, leaving the remainder of the 
implement ungrooved ; second, the trough or channel running the 
entire length of the implement; third, either having knobs or a 



62 



THE ALGONKIAX OCCUPATION OF XEW YORK 



k 



■■«' 








Plate VIII. 

Certain ,yl)f^ oi .New York gouges. XV2 . 1, Lysander; 2, poli?he:l 
^late gouge. Clay; 3, knobbed back gouge of tough stone, Glens Falls; 
4. sniall gouge with two grooves on back; .5, scoop mouth igouge, Ti- 
conderoga; 6, combination adz and souge, from Schoharie. 



THE ALGOXKIAN OCCUPATION' OF NEW YORK 



63 



groove on the back for fastening the handle. Some gouges have 
the butt end sharpened as a chisel. Gouges when hafted were 
fastened much as adzes, to a T handle 

Many Algonkian gouges are finely formed and polislied. 
They are not as common as celts and as specimens are con- 
sidered more valuable than adzes or celts. 

Grooved Axes. The grooved axe is typical of the Algonkian 
culture. The Iroquois did not use it. In New York grooved 




Plate IX 



Typical grooved axe , 



axes are larger and heavier than any other form of hafted cutting 
blade, though small specimens are not wanting. So far as our 
knowledge goes, except for certain Long Island specimens, all 
New York forms have the groove at right angles to the medial 
line of the object, that is, straight across and not slanted. New 
York grooved axes are not fluted like some western forms. 

Grooved axes in New York may be considered rare but they 
have been found in nearly all parts of the state where there are 
Algonkian sites. Some of the largest specimens come from the 



64 



THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 






Plate X. 

Types of New York grooved axes. x% . 1, Irving, Chautauqua Co. 
2, Versailles, Cattaraugus Co.; 3, Mount Morris; 4, Ticonderoga. 



THE ALGONKIAX OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 65 

valley of the Hudson, Long Island, Westchester county and 
Staten Island. 

Grooved Club Heads. These are considered rare objects. 
The State Museum has a number of specimens, some of which 
are made from natural pebbles of granite or other hard material, 
and some of hard rock dressed to shape and grooved. Some 
club heads show no rough usage, the rounded ends being quite 
smooth. Others seem to have been used as mauls or hammers. 
Club heads are always grooved on the short diameter. 

Grooved Weights. In certain localities naturally formed 
ovate pebbles of quartz or other water-washed stone are grooved 
around the long diameter. The grooves are distinct and are 
picked or beaten in by percussion. Just what these objects are 
is not certain for they may have been used as bola stones, as net 
weights, or enclosed in rawhide envelopes as loose heads of small 
Avar clubs. They are found in western New York sparingly, 
along the Genesee, about Irondequoit Bay, in the Mohawk valley 
(rarely), in the Sciioharie valley, about Otsego lake and along 
the Hudson. Many specimens have been found on Algonkian 
sites near Coxsackie. 

Sinew Stones. Sand-stone pebbles are sometimes found, 
having the surfaces and edges abraided and worn in such a 
manner as to reseml)le large i)iece.s of beeswax upon which 
cords or shoemai^er's thread had been rubbed. Many of these 
implements are neatly made and the grooves are regular. They 
are commonly called "sinew stones" from the idea that they 
were used for smoothing thongs and sinew cords. This seems 
to be the possible use. A surprisingly large number are abruptly 
broken so that complete specimens are comparatively rare. 
Complete sinew stones are rarer than bird stones in New York. 

Plummets. Stone plummets are among the rarer of the 
problematical objects found within the state. A number of 
specimens have liecn found along the Seneca river and near 
Oneida lake, others northward along Lake Champlain. Two 
fine specimens found by Prof. D. F. Thompson, collector, are of 
picked limestone and were found at Green Island, N. Y. They 
are similar to specimens from Maine. Other specimens of this 



66 



THE ALGOXKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 











J'i:n.. 



Bola .stones, plummets and spool-shaped stones. 
1, Bola from Patagonia; 2, North Trop; 3, Genesee Co.; 4, Brewer- 
ton: 5. Brewerton; G, Lysander; 7-S spool-shaped stones from Cox- 
sackie. Size: 2-3. 



THE ALGOXKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 67 

variety have been found along the Hoosick river which flows as 
a boundary between Washington and Rensselaer counties. Two 
specimens from Brewerton have necks less well defined with a 
groove running over the top. Another variety of plummets 
made of polished talc comes from Jeft'ersun county. ()ne 
specimen is cigar shaped with a knob being formed at the blunt 
end probably as a means of suspension. One from Lysander 
made from a natural pebble slightly worked has this same 
characteristic, but with the addition of tally marks on one side. 
A finely finished specimen is from Caughdenoy, Oswego county. 
Few of the plummets from this area are polished. Plummets do 
not occur on all Algonkian sites, and indeed, it is a question 
whether or not some of them do not belong to another culture 
quite different from that Avhich we recognize as Algonkian. 
Grooved axes, gouges, wide arrow points and spears are 
associated with })lummets. 

Spool Shaped Objects. Stone spools picked from t(nigh 
stone have been found along the Hudson river from Catskill to 
Glens Falls. They are simple cylinders concaved and are not 
more than two inches in length. The ends do not show usage. 

Steatite Vessels. Fragments of soapstone pottery are found 
ill nearly all })arts of New York. Complete vessels in this state 
are extremely rare, only two specimens being in the State 
Museum. The great abundance of the fragments in certain 
localities .shows a wide and prolonged use of this type of dish. 
Many fragments have lugs or projecting handles and some 
show perforations as if cracks had been tied by cords passed 
through holes on either side of the fracture. 

One complete specimen was found in Saratoga county. It 
is a thick, heavy, ellipsoidal dish with lugs, and was used as a 
mortar for crushing red iron oxide. The pigment thickly 
encrusts the interior of the vessel. A second specimen is a small 
thin vessel shaped like a shallow ovate bowl. Unlike the first 
specimen it is smoothly finished throughout. 

The Iroquois did not use steatite dishes and fragments are 
found only on Algonkian and on Eskimo-like sites. A few 
fragments have been found in the Genesee valley associated with 
bell pestles. 



68 THE ALGuXKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 

Faces or Heads of Stone. On certain Algronkian sites, par- 
ticularly those influenced by the Delaware, effigies of human 
faces or heads are found. At least two such faces from the 
State are good pieces of aboriginal sculpture. The human 
features on these specimens are well modeled. Other specimens 
are more or less grotesque or conventionalized. Some are merely 
indicated by incised lines and others by dots or drilled 
depressions. The Delaware used faces of stone or wood in their 
ceremonies. 





Plate XII. 

Mic-mac pipe^ from Central New York. About 1-1. 

Pipes. Stone pipes have been found on Algonkian sites, but 
they arc nol numerous. There are several forms, ranging from 
rude l)owls to beautifully formed platform monitors. One 
typical f(u-m is that having a tubular bowl bent at a slight angle 
from a flattened or beveled stem. This form is sometimes copied 
in clay, though the stem is thicker and the bowl shorter. The 
material of the stone pipes is usually steatite, or some allied 
substance. 

Micmac pipes, so-called, have a barrel-like l)()wl resting upon 
a rather slender short stem which sets upon a flattened rect- 



THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 



69 





Plate XIII. 
Stone human face effigies. 1 Chemung valley; 2 Mohawk valley. x% ^ 



70 



THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 



angular projection. This may be decorated with incised lines 
and have a hole drilled through it. Micmacs are found in 
northern New York but may be considered fairly modern, some 
showing the marks of steel tools. They are the most ornamental 
forms of Algonkian stone pipes, some having animals carved in 
relief on the bowl. 

Polished Stone Articles. On most Algonkian sites one or 
several forms of polished slate articles are found. Among these 
are banner stones, boat stones, bird stones, bar amulets and 
gorgets. Other minor forms are found, as pendants and 
perforated discoids. That these articles were used by the 




Plate XIV. 

Algonkian pots. 1 from Shinnecock Hills, L. I. 2 from Susque- 
hanna valley. Shows Iroquoian influence, x^i. 

Algonkian tribes is proved by finding them in process of manu- 
facture on village sites and in "workshops". Such specimens 
are usually made of local stone, but finished articles may be and 
frequently are of extralimital materials, as Huronian slate. 
The polished slate culture is described in the chapter on the 
mound-building people. 

It may be well to keep in mind tluit none of the polished 
slate "problematical forms" seems to be complete in itself, but 
appears rather to be parts of other and more complex objects. 
This makes the problem of determining their use all the more 



THE ALGOXKIAX OCCUPATIOX OF NEW YORK 



difficult. It is 
Algonkian and 
not use them. 

Pottery . . 
distinctive, and 
it at a glance, 
and decoration, 
also serve as a 



71 

significant that polished slates were used by both 
by the mound-building tribes. The Iroquois did 

Algonkian pottery in its fully developed form is 

an experienced collector soon learns to recognize 

Its characteristic features include both form 

though in a measure the texture of the clay may 

guide. Many Algonkian A'essels are ovoid, with 




Plate XV. 

Pottery vessel of Algonkian type from Ouaqu^ga. Yager collection. 



X 1-5. 



^ 



the small end down and the large end open for the mouth of the 
jar. There is considerable variation as the accompanying il- 
lustration shows. The Iroquois exercised a considerable in- 
fluence upon the Algonkian potters and it may be readily be- 
lieved that the Algonkian people acquired by trade or otherwise 



72 



THE ALGONKIAX OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 



many Iroquois pots. In numerous instances potsherds and even 
completed vessels show how the Algonkian potter endeavored to 
imitate Iroquois decoration, but in most cases Algonkian technic 
betrays itself. The Iroquois made bold free strokes and his 
patterns were striking; the Algonkian imitator made fine un- 
certain lines and his attempts at patterns were "fussy". In 




Piatt XVI. 



Algonkian pot from the Chenango river. 



its external markings, however, the true Algoukiau i)()ttery 
was of three general sorts: (1) cord marked, as if the entire 
surface of the plastic clay had been wrapped in a coarse bag 
made of loosely woven fabric, or had been patted over by pads 
of coarse fabric-. (2) stamped with Avooden dies or impressed 



THE ALGOXKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 73 

with notched or checkered sticks; (3) marked over the body by- 
natural objects such as sea shells, or by the edge of a scallop 
shell, bark reed, fingernail etc. Nearly all true Algonkian forms 
show impressed patterns, as opposed to the general Iroquois 
method of drawn patterns that dug into the clay and left the 
markings. 

As a rule Algonkian pots not influenced by the Iroquois have 
no overhanging rims, and no collars. A vast number of Algon- 
kian potsherds show that the decoration was carried over the 
rim and down into the neck of the pot. 

Complete Algonkian vessels are not common and few mu- 
seums have more than three or four specimens. Some found in 
fragments have been restored. 




Plate XVII. 

Algonkian pipe found by E. H. Gohl at Owasco Lake outlet. 

Pottery Pipes. Algonkian pottery pipes in New York 
seldom approach the beauty of form or finish of either their 
own stone pipes or of Iroquois clay pipes. The earlier Algon- 
kian clay pipes are crude, some being almost childish in model- 
ing. In later sites there is considerable improvement until in 
some inland sites pipes have arrived at a definite form and are 
well made. Decoration is both by modeling and by impressed 
designs. Modeled ornamentation seems late and the result of 
external influence. 

In shape, the Algonkian pipe takes several forms: (1) the 



74 THE ALGOXKIAN OCCUPATION OF XEW YORK 




Plate XVIII. 



Type^ of Algonkian Pipes from New York. 



THE ALGOXKIAX OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 75 

long, Straight, conical tube with the bowl but slightly expanded, 
decorated and undt'C(U'ated ; (2) the bent tube, with the bowl 
having a slight ui)\\ard turn; i3) the flat or thin beveled stem 
having a bowl at a slight angle, imitating stone forms; (4) the 
bowl at nearly right angles, the stem either round or slightly 
flattened, the whole resembling a bent human arm, the stem 
being the arm to the wrist and the bowl a portion of the upper 
arm. The elbow bend and the tip are copied in most instances. 
The real prototype may have been a bark tube or cornucopia 
with one end bent slightly u])\var(l for the bowl and the longer 
portion flattened our as a stem that could be conveniently held 
in the mouth. A little experimentation with a piece of birch 
bark will demonstrate the possibility of this. 

Copper Implements. Articles of native copper are some- 
times found on Algonkian sites ; indeed, wherever polished slates 
are found copjier objects may be expected. These include 
spearheads and arrowheads, gouges, chisels and adzes, small 
hatchets, mattocks, awls, tisldiooks and bead ear ornaments. 
Copper articles are among the rarest of New ^'ork s])ecimens. 
Most have been found on the surface but a number have been 
taken from mounds and from graves. Not all are Algonkian 
by any means; indeed it is doubtful if the New Voi-k Algonkins 
ever made copper imj^lements. Those that they had were 
probably acquired from extralimital sources through trade or 
otherwise. They are i)robal)ly of mound culture oi-jgin. the 
material coming either from Virginia or from the Lake Superior 
region. No native copper implements are tempered, the hardness 
that they do possess being due to the hammering and annealing 
process. 

Bone and Antler Implements. Algonkian bone implements 
in New York may be considered relatively numerous and some 
sites, especially on the coast, along the St. Lawrence and about 
Oneida lake, have yielded several thousand good specimens and 
many more fragments. These articles include awls, beads, blades, 
harpoon heads, tubes. i)erforated teeth, arrowheads, antler 
punches, needles, shuttles, turtle shell cups, etc. Articles of 



76 



r 



THE ALGONKIAX OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 





■ < 'I 



n-'rs^\ 





¥ 



f 



10 



Plate XIX. 

C?rta'n types of New York harpoons. x%. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 10 from 
Oneida lake sites; 5, 7, 8. 9 from Jefferson Co. shore sites. 



THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 77 

walrus ivory are sometimes found along the St. Lawrence and 
pieces of cut Avhalebone have been found on Long Island. 

Village Sites and Fortifications. Coastal Algonkian sites 
cover fairly large areas and are characterized by more or less 
extensive refuse deposits of marine shells intermingled with 
animal bones and other waste material and occasional specimens 
of ornaments and implements. Some of these shell heaps are as 
deep as eight or ten feet, though most have a depth of four feet 
and less. Some coastal sites have good occupational layers with 
refuse pits and fire holes. Central New York village sites are 
near lakes or large streams and spread out over a considerable 
acreage, as if the vil'age or camp was either not compact or that 
it was moved about in the same general spot. Very few sites 
away from the coast have tlie thick deposits of solid refuse found 
in places of Iroquois occupation, which may have resulted from 
the Algonkian custom of throwing refuse on the surface, to be 
destroyed by rodents and the elements, and thus preventing the 
accumulation of intrusive debris in the ground. 

There were several Algonkian sites near Plattsburg on Lake 
Champlain, others near Coxsackie and at Croton point on the 
Hudson; in Central New York, at Owasco and Oneida lakes. 
Coastal sites have been described by Skinner and Harrington in 
American Museum publications. 

The Algonkins built their villages on the tlat land near 
navigable streams, and while they did have fortified refuges in 
the form of stockades, the remains of these are few and not 
impressive. 

THE ESKIMO-LIKE CULTURE. 

In various localities throughout the State there are sites 
that seem to have been occupied at a very early period. The 
implements found are few and crude, with now and then the 
anomaly of some wonderfully fine specimen. The fire pits show 
little refuse and almost no bone, save fragments calcined by 
heat. In some of these sites fire-cracked stones are abundant. 
Graves are shallow and show no trace of osseous substance. 

So far we have described nothing especially characteristic, 



78 



THE ALGONKIAX OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 




Plate XX. 
Slate knives and senii-lncar chopper from central New York sites, x 3-5 
1, 2, Van Bureu, Onondaga Co.; 3, Lysander; 4, Brewerton; 
5, Glens Falls; 6, Hudson. 



RD 1 2.8 



THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 79 

but when we discover on sites like these semilunar knives of 
slate and rubbed slate double-edged knives and projectile points, 
we have something as a guide. Associated with these objects 
are found fragments of soapstone pottery. Chert arrowheads 
are broad, large, and have sloping shoulders. Some are almost 
lozenge-shaped and many have thick, wide necks as if used as 
lance or harpoon heads. Celts and polished stone scrapers are 
found on these sites as also are chert scrapers and perforators. 
On a few of these sites bone harpoons have been found in ashy 
deposits. Dr. 0. C. Auringer found a beautiful walrus ivory dirk 
in a fire pit near Troy and associated with it on the site crude 
and much weathered flints. In some sites of this general cultural 
horizon will be found gouges, hemispheres of hematite, figurines, 
ornaments of unusual shapes, and many other unfamiliar 
artifacts. 

It is evident that sites of this character are not Iroquoian. 
that they are not of the clay pot using Algonkian tribes, and that 
there is little distinctive in them resembling the mound-building 
people, except for an occasional bird stone. A study leads to 
the conclusion that sites of this character Avere once occupied by 
a ])eople influenced by the Eskimo, if not actually by the Eskimo 
themselves. Our investigation points out that the influence came 
from the north, especially the northeast. 

It would be difficult to indicate any special center in this 
State from which this culture radiated. The area showing traces 
of this Eskimoan influence are: (1) the St. Lawrence basin to 
Clayton; (2) the east and south shore of Lake Ontario from 
Clayton to Irondequoit Bay ; (3) the Genesee valley; (4) the 
Finger Lakes region, including the entire drainage basin; (5) 
the Champlain valley: (6) the Hudson valley to Albany. Scat- 
tered relics are found in Western New York and in the valleys 
of the Susquehanna and Delaware with their tributaries. The 
culture thins out as it ranges south, but it may be expected to 
appear in Vermont on the east and even in Massachusetts. Not 
much may be expected in either Pennsylvania or Ohio. 

Many of these so-called Eskimoan sites appear to be of great 
antiquity, while others seem closely to approach the period of 



80 THE ALGONKIAN OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK 

the middle Algonkian tribes. Indeed certain Algonkian sites 
that date to the ()]i«'ning of the Colonial period seem in some ways 
to have been influenced by this northern culture. It is quite 
likely, therefore, that the period of influence was a lengthy one. 
We may even be permitted to ask several questions concerning 
the people who left these evidences, these questions to constitute 
the problem set forth for solution by students of archeology. 
First, we may ask were the people characterized by this culture 
Eskimoan? Second, if they were not of Eskimo stock, who 
were they? Were they Boethuck or Algonkin? Third, did not 
some undetermined people copy certain features of Eskimoan 
culture? Fourth, were these people exterminated, driven back 
to the north, or were they absorbed by later comers to perpetuate 
some of their arts? 

It is possible that some time a painstaking student may 
discover and open up a site that will answer some if not all of 
these inquiries. 






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